“Everly,” I growled her name, and storm clouds thundered overhead in answer.
Batty struck her chest again with a desperate burst of her wings, and the impact exploded in a flash of silver-white light. Everly’s body convulsed under the shock, a violent tremor ripping through her before she gasped and lurched upright, as though dragged from the depths of drowning.
Air fled my lungs in a rush, and my heart hammered painfully against my ribs, refusing to settle even as she sagged toward me.
“Don’t you ever do that again, Morta Mea,” I said as both relief and anger tangled together inside me.
Her eyelids fluttered. She wheezed in a breath that sounded far too thin, far too fragile, but still somehow managed a reply through our bond.
We might need to workshop that nickname…She took another wheezing breath.Since I did just save your life.
I blinked down at her, too annoyed to be amused. Too relieved to be anything else.
Everly’s mouth curved into a wan smirk, the expression faint but undeniably hers. A moment later her eyes drifted closed again. This time, however, her pulse thrummed with reassuring strength beneath my fingertips, and her breathing grew slow and even.
“Keira.” Kaelen’s voice drew my attention upward.
He landed nearby, his wings folding tightly against his back as exhaustion etched across his features. Behind him, the Korythid lay dead.
The young female pushed herself upright on trembling legs and limped toward her brother. Though her lips trembled, her jaw was set with the stoic determination of a young warrior refusing to show any more weakness than she already had.
Kaelen gathered her into his arms with a gentleness that contrasted sharply with the blood and frost still clinging to him. Then he turned to me and dipped his head in a brief nod.
“Will she be all right?” he asked, his eyes flicking toward Everly.
I shifted her slightly in my arms, feeling the bond settle into a steady, quiet hum. There was no longer a cold spike of danger pulsing from my ring. No more panic ripping through the bond. Just exhaustion—deep and consuming, but stable.
“She’ll recover,” I said. My voice was steady, but my thoughts were anything but as I gripped her a little tighter, cradling her in my arms as I pushed to my feet.
The moment was far too familiar, and haunting. Between the Korythid, the collapse, the sudden stillness, the terror of not knowing whether someone I loved would ever open their eyes again.
Nevara had fallen the same way, and she had yet to return to us. I swallowed and forced the thoughts away as far as I could send them.
“You didn’t have to stay,” Kaelen added as I turned to walk away. His arms tightened around the young fae. “You could have left us to the monster.”
I glanced across Frost Grave Pass. Ice entombed soldiers who had died long before today, their faces frozen in their final moments. Fresh blood streaked the snow beside ancient stainsthat would never fade. The wind moved through the field like it remembered every death it had carried.
“Too much blood has been spilled on this ground already,” I said. The words felt heavier than I intended, dragged up from a place I rarely allowed myself to examine.
Kaelen studied me for a moment, as though weighing the truth of that. His expression softened almost imperceptibly.
“We would not still be breathing without your intervention,” he said. “Or hers.” His gaze drifted toward Everly, and something like respect—or gratitude—worked its way into his voice. “I hope the next time we meet, it’s not on a battlefield.”
Despite myself, I found I wanted the same.
I offered him a silent dip of my chin in response.
Kaelen adjusted his sister in his arms and launched into the sky, his warriors rising behind him until the clouds swallowed their silhouettes entirely.
Silence reclaimed the pass as I shifted Everly more securely against my chest. Her breath warmed the fabric of my cloak in soft, uneven puffs, and her pulse throbbed steadily through the bond.
I told myself it was different this time—different from carrying her broken body out of that cave in the Wilds. Different from Nevara, even.
Everly was alive, and I would damned well keep her that way.
Her dagger lay half-buried in the snow where she’d dropped it. I crouched, retrieved the blade, and slipped it into my belt before crossing to the fallen Korythids, their massive bodies still steaming in the frigid air.
I summoned my mana and severed each stinger with a clean, decisive cut, encasing the barbed lengths in ice.
